‘AMAZING GIFT’
Country singer-songwriter Zane Williams grateful for career
Zane Williams is a songwriter.
It’s all he thinks about.
“I like working all the way to polishing up a song,” he says in a recent interview. “It’s always a journey to go on with each song. I always enjoy the surprise of it all.”
Williams is also enjoying his life as an independent country artist.
Once signed and living in Nashville, Tenn., he penned the single, “Hurry Home,” which was covered by Jason Michael Carroll in 2009.
The single was also selected as the Maxell song of the year during the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.
Williams lives in Texas with his family and continues to write and tour.
He still primarily writes by himself and has co-written songs only a couple of times.
“It’s all manageable,” he quips. “At the end of the day, I’m able to make a living doing my songs. I’m not big enough of a name to have songwriters knocking down my door with songs. I write when I’m inspired by something. It could be a chorus or verse. It depends on my mood.”
Williams’ most recent album is 2016’s “Bringin’ Country Back.”
He says the entire album is a rallying cry for a return to authenticity and substance in mainstream country music.
“I think of country music as poetry for the common man,” he says. “The stories that draw you in, the simple truth stated in a way you wish you could’ve said. There’s an honesty to country music that totally grabbed me the first time I heard it.”
Over the course of his career, he’s netted four No. 1 songs on the Texas radio charts.
He’s also shared the stage with George Jones and Alan Jackson and he played at the Grand Ole Opry in 2015 after being invited to perform there.
“I get a lot of ideas while I’m busy doing other tasks,” he says. “Say driving down the road, or doing dishes, or mowing the yard. My wife can always tell when I’m working on a song because my toe is tapping, my lips are moving, and I can’t hear a word she’s saying.”
In fact, after his interview, Williams was on his way to record a new song for a coming album.
“Whenever I get the chance to get back into the studio, I take it,” he says. “It’s important for me to keep all of my skills as sharp as they can be. I step back sometimes and realize that I get to do this for a living. It’s an amazing gift.”